Study: Poor English skills holding immigrants back in New England

Tuesday

Sep 23, 2014 at 9:39 PM

The cities of Providence, New Bedford and Fall River have long attracted hard-working immigrants. But a new report shows that 8.4 percent of the adult population — immigrants and others — lack the English...

Paul Davis wmpdavis

The cities of Providence, New Bedford and Fall River have long attracted hard-working immigrants. But a new report shows that 8.4 percent of the adult population — immigrants and others — lack the English skills needed for good-paying jobs.

New Englanders who speak limited English earn less, buy fewer local goods and pay less in taxes, says a study released Wednesday by the Brookings Institution, a Washington public policy center.

According to the report, the number of immigrants who speak limited English is growing in some metropolitan areas. That could be bad news for the economy, because immigrant workers and their children will account for virtually all of the growth in the U.S. labor force in the next few decades, said Jill H. Wilson, author of the report.

About 90,430 people speak limited English in Providence and southeastern Massachusetts. Nearly half of those are recent immigrants, says the study, based on 2012 census numbers. Residents with poor English skills earn 25 percent to 40 percent less than those with better skills.

In Massachusetts, the percentage of adults who speak limited English is 6.9 percent in Worcester and nearly 10 percent in greater Boston. The national average is 9.3 percent.

Leaders who want to invest in the nation’s future work force must spend more on English instruction, Wilson said. “English proficiency is the most essential means of opening doors to economic opportunity for immigrant workers in the United States. Yet access to acquiring these skills is persistently limited by a lack of resources and attention,” she said.

“This is a population we don’t want to leave behind.”

The study looks at 89 of the most heavily populated metropolitan areas in the United States. Some 19.2 million working-age residents have limited English skills, it says.

Limited by their English skills, many clean hotel rooms or work in restaurants. Others work for social service agencies or on construction crews or in manufacturing plants.

In Providence and southeastern Massachusetts, nearly 54 percent of the adults with poor English skills speak Spanish, the study says.

Less than 50 percent have graduated from high school or have taken some college courses, but education is less important than speaking English, the report says.

In fact, some professionals from other countries are driving taxis and working at restaurants in the region, said Anna Cano Morales, director of the Latino Policy Institute at Roger Williams University.

“We have to invest in high-quality programs,” she said. Colleges, state departments, policy groups and nonprofits can do more, she said.

But the issue is more complicated than teaching conversational English to adults, she said. Many immigrants come from high-paying jobs in other countries. They need to learn an English vocabulary that reflects their professions, Morales said. “How do we capture their talents and expertise?”

Nationally, the group of those with poor English skills has almost doubled, from 4.8 percent in 1980 to 9.3 percent in 2012. But funding for English education has not kept pace, the study says. And many states have waiting lists for immigrants seeking classes.

In Rhode Island, more than 2,000 people are on the waiting list for adult education programs, said Elliot Krieger, a spokesman for the state Department of Education. About half of those in programs or seeking classes are learning English. The average wait for a class is from three to five months, he said.

During registration for English classes in Cranston this week, “the line was out of the door,” said Karisa Tashjian, director of the Rhode Island Family Literacy Initiative. Last year, the family literacy program helped 200 adults from 47 countries. But the group, which receives money from the state and United Way of Rhode Island, is facing a $14,000 budget decrease this year.

Adults learning English face other hurdles, too, said Kathy Cloutier, executive director of Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island. “Ideally, folks need at least a year” to learn another language, “but they have to earn a living too, so they drop out of class to work.”